I first started journaling years ago because Julia Cameron told me to.

Not literally; I’ve never met or communicated with the renowned author and screenwriter personally.

However in her bestselling creative self-help book/program The Artist’s Way, which I completed in 2011, she advocates a practice of “morning pages”—three handwritten, stream-of-consciousness pages of journaling first thing every morning.

I’ve got one more kick at the can.

I’m a long-standing lover of New Year’s resolutions, and this year, aside from just setting some—which is the easy part—I decided to perform regular progress assessments in order to course correct as needed to help boost my likelihood of achieving success.

It’s widely agreed that most people abandon their New Year’s resolutions by mid-February.

I’ve always found this perspective unduly negative and deterministic. Yes, many people may suffer setbacks in their yearly goals during February. Yet it’s also widely agreed that “If at first you don’t succeed…” is a valid approach to life.